CrowdStrike Disrupts Airlines Operations, Minister Of Transportation Urges To Use The Best Technology And Do Backup

Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi (Aris Nurjani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi, explained that the disruption of the CrowdStrike-Microsoft information technology (IT) system had an impact on many aviation operations around the world, including in Indonesia.

Budi explained that the incident also had an impact but was not too significant and the airlines affected were Low Cost Carriers (LCC) such as Citilink and AirAsia, so operations had to be carried out manually.

"There was but not too massive, yesterday the LCC was the one affected, especially in Citilink and AirAsia, which was the most affected. It had to be manual for one day but the next day we were recovering.," Budi told the media crew in the Kota Tua area, Sunday, July 21.

Budi suggested that in the future we use the best technology and backup it so that it does not happen again like the previous incident, based on similar incidents such as what happened when the immigration system was disrupted.

Just like what happened in the past, an immigration system is disrupted, so those who will come apart from using good technology. There must be a backup that cannot rely on only 1 system. Yesterday, Alhamdulillah, the next day, it immediately recovered," he explained.

Previously, the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) announced that the Navatier system used for checkin services had returned to normal after Microsoft went down. The operational process of checkin services since the first flight, both Citilink and Air Asia, has used the system and is running smoothly.

In Indonesia, interference with the IT system occurs in several check-in systems owned by several airlines such as Citilink, Scoot Airlines, AirAsia and Indigo. The reason is, the system is connected to system providers globally.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transportation is observing the news of several airports abroad experiencing disturbances to the global information technology (IT) system, such as airports in the United States, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia and others.

Head of the International, Public Relations and Public Cooperation Section of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Mokhamad Khusnu, said that when IT disturbances occurred, anticipatory steps were taken by serving the check-in process manually, opening more check-in counters and urging passengers to leave early.

"Several flight operators such as PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia (Angkasa Pura I and Angkasa Pura II) and Airnav Indonesia continue to carry out flight operations normally and there are no disturbances," he said.

The Ministry of Transportation through the Directorate General of Hubud monitors the development of the problem and takes anticipatory and mitigation steps, including ensuring the handling of passengers by providing delay compensation and the best service options for passengers.

In addition, the Directorate General of Hubud assigned aviation inspectors to cooperate with aviation operators, airport operators and flight navigation to ensure flight operations continue to run safely and safely.